Plans to Come out With New Temporary Parent Visas Announced

Plans to Come out With New Temporary Parent Visas Announced https://migrationalliance.com.au/immigration-daily-news/entry/2016-09-government-announces-plan-for-new-temporary-parent-visas.html

Plans to Come out With New Temporary Parent Visas Announced Mr Alex Hawke, the assistant minister for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, has issued out a statement to the media saying that the Turnbull Government fully means to introduce a new ‘temporary sponsored parent visa’ by the yearh 2017.

The new Temporary Parent Visa is going to let the citizens of Australia (this would also presumably include permanent residents as well as eligible citizens from New Zealand) sponsor their parents to stay in the country for up to a period of 5 years.

Now this one can definitely be considered great news.

But first thing’s first.

The truth is there is still quite a bit of room for improvement on the framework that we have now. This current framework provides 1.) the limited and not-so-pleasant choices of standard parent visas with queueing, capping, as well as seemingly endless processing times which render these visas actually pointless and ineffective, and 2.) the alarmingly pricey contributory parent options.

The media release has also mentioned that migrant communities are definitely dealing with a lot of pressures when it comes to the separation of children from their parents, and the separation of grandchildren from their grandparents, and the government fully recognises that as a fact.

It is a good thing that the Australian Government recognises this, as the fact that families needing and wanting to be with each other is a pretty serious matter.

We can only hope that these visas are going to be opened soon and that it would be readily accessible to those who need it, and that there will not be a criterion which is going to let the Department of Immigration and Border Protection reject their application on grounds that are arbitraryu and subjective. We are going to continue to hope for that until these visas go live.

This type of visa is going to be such a welcome news to all those who are concerned, and there are those who were able to deal with it firsthand. There was a case wherein a couple in Tasmania, both of whom were doctors, who wanted the parents of the husband to visit Australia from the United Arab Emirates for 2 weeks just so they can see their grandson who has just been born. The parents who wished to go to Australia were both Iraqi nationals who have been residents of the UAE for a long time now. The couple had strong family and financial ties there, and are also solidly employed. That didn’t matter as their applications for family-sponsored visitor visas were rejected on the basis that they were not able to satisfy what a lot of people are dreading as the genuine temporary entrant requirement as the immigration department ruled that they cannot provide assurance they will be allowed to return to UAE even if they are residents there.

Harsh and completely crazy huh?

There probably are quite a few people out there who have stories that are similar to this. The truth is there are a lot of parents out there, of different nationalities, all around the world who would like to be given the chance to visit Australia and spend time with their own kids and grandchildren. They lead their own lives in their own respective countries, with their own jobs and businesses, and who are in no way thinking of sneakily overstaying their visas (and their welcome in the process), or becoming a burden to the health care system of Australia.

This is just one of the reasons why this is considered to be a great piece of news, and why we think this new visa pathway definitely cannot come any sooner!